Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
June  1,  1871.  J 
JEstlietics  of  Labels. 
255 
nearly  eleven  millions  pounds,  and  of  this  amount  the  state  of  New 
York  produced  nine  millions  pounds.  In  the  year  1861,  about  eight 
millions  pounds  were  exported. 
Hops,  when  packed  in  bales,  are  sometimes  adulterated,  the  outside 
consisting  of  good  hops,  while  the  interior  is  filled  with  hops  deprived 
of  the  lupulin,  and  sprinkled  over  with  lycopodium  and  powdered 
rosin  to  hide  the  fraud. 
I  have  obtained  from  one  pound  of  fair  commercial  hops,  1\  oz 
lupulin  ;  from  a  pound  of  fresh  New  York  hops  1  oz,  and  from  fresh 
Philadelphia  hops  f  oz,  averaging  1  oz  from  the  pound,  or  6J  per 
cent.  The  smaller  yield  in  the  last  two  cases  was  due  to  the  fresh 
condition  of  the  hops. 
THE  ESTHETICS  OP  LABELS. 
By  James  R.  Mp^rcein. 
"A  good  workman  is  known  by  his  chips,"  says  the  old  adage  ;  a 
careful  pharmacist  is  known,  or  should  be,  by  his  labels,  say  I.  Sent 
out  as  they  are  upon  multiform  parcels  to  the  homes  of  our  customers, 
they  pass  beyond  our  reach  and  speak  for  themselves — and  for  us. 
It  behooves  us,  then,  to  be  very  circumspect  as  to  the  outward  adorn- 
ing of  our  dumb  representatives.  A  roughly  cut,  badly  printed  label 
such  as  we  too  often  see,  is  like  a  'shocking  bad  hat,'  on  a  well- 
dressed  man,  spoiling  the  tout  ensemble  and  betraying  the  sloven. 
Pharmacists  err  in  thinking  their  patrons  inobservant  of  such  seem- 
ingly small  matters.  The  almost  Egyptian  mystery  that  surrounds 
the  ordinary  details  of  onr  profession  baffles  the  lool^er-on,  and  he 
naturally  judges  us  by  our  outward  symbols  and  tokens,  of  which  the 
label  is  the  most  familiar.  Ex  pede  Hercule — if  by  the  brazen  foot 
the  ancients  estimated  the  statue,  let  us  see  to  it,  that  the  labels,  our 
representatives,  shall  be  a  worthy  exemplar  of  our  work.  The  form 
of  the  label  is  the  first  point  to  be  looked  at.  A  round  peg  in  a 
square  hole  does  not  look  more  out  of  place  than  an  ill-shaped  or 
over-sized  label,  and  yet  every  day  you  will  see  a  huge  bit  of  paper 
on  a  '  wee  little'  bottle,  or  a  diminutive  scrap  on  a  portly  flagon, 
thereby  neutralizing  the  good  looks  of  both  labels  and  vials.  Of 
course  there  can  be  no  definite  rule  as  to  proper  sizes,  but  the  phar- 
macist should  train  his  eye  and  his  taste  intuitively  to  recognize  the 
right  proportions.    Let  him  avoid  exactly  square  labels,  or  those 
